Structural equation models linking cognitive and affective factors, approach to learning, and perceptions of the actual and preferred mathematics classroom environments were tested in a longitudinal study involving 356 secondary school students in Hong Kong. Models of acceptable fit that clarified the effects of classroom environment on how students learn and the outcomes they achieve were obtained. Numerous significant paths from prior learning experience to environmental variables were identified; the most salient path from classroom environment to learning outcomes was that between an enjoyable classroom environment and cognitive achievement. An enjoyable classroom environment mediated the causal relationship between a deep approach and high-level achievement. However, classroom environment did not seem to influence changes in approach to learning.
[Copyright of Journal of Educational Research is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220679809597550]

The University of Hong Kong collaborated with the Fudan University in Shanghai to offer a Master of Social Service Management (MSSM) part-time degree for students in Shanghai. While most courses of the program were taught by instructors sent from Hong Kong and other overseas countries on weekends and holidays, the "Information and Communication Technology in Social Service Organizations" course was offered online and supplemented by several face-to-face sessions. Instructors in Texas and Hong Kong collaborated and offered the course to the students in Shanghai. Teaching and learning online was a completely new experience for the students. Technical, social, cultural, and linguistic issues arose throughout the four months during which the course was offered. This paper shares the teaching experience and reflection of the instructors as well as the learning outcome and evaluation of the students.
[Copyright of Journal of Technology in Human Services is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J017v23n01_08 ]

Through interviews and observing day-to-day classroom practice, this study explores the beliefs of 10 music teachers in elementary schools in Vancouver and Hong Kong. The results demonstrate that the music teachers of the two localities hold similar cognitive beliefs about the essential elements of music education. However, they hold different beliefs about the value or impact of music education on the psychological or character development of students. Music teachers of Vancouver are found to be more student-centred than their counterparts in Hong Kong, and this is reflected in both the curriculum and activities selected for classroom teaching. Though both groups of teachers place similar emphasis on western music, in Canada more classroom activities are based around the student's personal enjoyment and expression. In Hong Kong, meanwhile, music education is viewed as a means of nurturing the student's temperamental development. While students in Vancouver are allowed to express their personal musical preferences in classroom activities, in Hong Kong students are required to perform according to prescribed standard indicators of success. This is probably linked--albeit invisibly--to Chinese Confucian culture.
[Copyright of Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13450600500137182]

This paper attempts to discuss the Chinese cultural implications of the recently proposed document: 'Global Qualifying Standards for Social Work Education' by the IASSW and IFSW. It seems that this document still embraces an ideology of western social work imperialism in perceiving the development of social work in other countries. With reference to Chinese culture and social work education in Hong Kong and in mainland China, the writer advocates that responsibility and rights, stability and changes, social norms and equality, as well as empowerment and relation, should be fully articulated in the definition, ethical principles, and core purpose of social work practice as well as in the mission and curriculum in social work education within Chinese communities.
[Copyright of Social Work Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0261547042000252316]